EDINBURGH-based Apex Hotels has offered the first sign of its strategy to diversify into rural areas with the acquisition of a popular hotel in Pitlochry.
The family-owned company, which has hotels in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, London, and Bath, has taken over the Pine Trees Hotel for an undisclosed sum.
The Pine Trees is described as a “classic Scottish country house hotel”, with 32 bedrooms including a six-bedroom coach house, set within 10 acres of secluded gardens.
READ MORE: What can Scotland's troubled ferry service learn from Croatia?
Apex declared the acquisition, brokered by Christie & Co, was the “first step in an ambitious plan targeting popular UK destinations”.
The hotel was previously privately owned by Major and Mrs Barlow.
All 15 of the Pine Trees' staff have been retained by Apex.
Chief executive Angela Vickers said: “The acquisition of Pine Trees Hotel illustrates our commitment to delivering sustainable growth in the UK market and we look forward to welcoming our new team members into the Apex family. This move was the perfect fit in seeking to diversify the Apex Hotels brand in more rural locations to provide our guests with greater choice alongside existing city centre locations.
READ MORE: Islay whisky moves to slash emissions as new design revealed
“Our vision for the group puts our guests and their guest experience at the heart of our thinking. The recent sale of Apex London Wall Hotel will help fund future growth plans, enabling our expansion whilst continuing to invest in our existing portfolio and the development of our people.
“Our recent award-winning brand refresh and visual identity ‘Find Yourself Here’ better tells the story of Apex Hotels, making us more relevant and attractive to consumers and future hospitality talent around the world.”
Brian Sheldon, regional director (hospitality) Scotland, said: “The sale of The Pine Trees Hotel epitomises the demand for quality and established country house hotels in good locations throughout Scotland.
READ MORE: Brewgooder details growth plans as two major hires are revealed
"The hotel has been meticulously looked after by the family, although being run under management, with no expense being spared in decoration and refurbishment over the years of their ownership, Major and Mrs Barlow look forward to a well-deserved break before their next venture.”
Major and Mrs Barlow said: “We would like to take this opportunity to thank the team at the Pine Trees Hotel for all their hard work over the past five years. Their dedication and service to customers has been endless, making the Pine Trees Hotel a wonderful, comfortable place to stay. The management and staff would also like to thank all the customers for their support during the challenging times after the pandemic closures.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here